Pitch accent

Pitch accent is a feature of certain languages whose variations in pitch (linguistic tones) can be used to differentiate words, but the potentially distinctive tones are restricted to one or two syllables within a word. That contrasts with fully-tonal languages like Standard Chinese in which each syllable can have an independent tone. In a pitch accent language, the syllable with phonemic tone is typically acoustically prominent (stressed). Also, many words may not be marked for tone at all.

Pitch accent

Pitch accent is a feature of certain languages whose variations in pitch (linguistic tones) can be used to differentiate words, but the potentially distinctive tones are restricted to one or two syllables within a word. That contrasts with fully-tonal languages like Standard Chinese in which each syllable can have an independent tone. In a pitch accent language, the syllable with phonemic tone is typically acoustically prominent (stressed). Also, many words may not be marked for tone at all.